Assessment of GPM and TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Products in Streamflow Simulations in a Data-Sparse Mountainous Watershed in Myanmar

Abstract

Satellite precipitation products from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission and its predecessor the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) are a critical data source for hydrological applications in ungauged basins. This study conducted an initial and early evaluation of the performance of the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) final run and the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis 3B42V7 precipitation products, and their feasibility in streamflow simulations in the Chindwin River basin, Myanmar, from April 2014 to December 2015 was also assessed. Results show that, although IMERG and 3B42V7 can potentially capture the spatiotemporal patterns of historical precipitation, the two products contain considerable errors. Compared with 3B42V7, no significant improvements were found in IMERG. Moreover, 3B42V7 outperformed IMERG at daily and monthly scales and in heavy rain detections at four out of five gauges. The large errors in IMERG and 3B42V7 distinctly propagated to streamflow simulations via the Xinanjiang hydrological model, with a significant underestimation of total runoff and high flows. The bias correction of the satellite precipitation effectively improved the streamflow simulations. The 3B42V7-based streamflow simulations performed better than the gauge-based simulations. In general, IMERG and 3B42V7 are feasible for use in streamflow simulations in the study area, although 3B42V7 is better suited than IMERG.

Validation of Satellite Rainfall Products over a Mountainous Watershed in a Humid Subtropical Climate Region of Brazil

“…Jiang et al [19] analyzed the TRMM 3B42 product across a large region of China and obtained higher correlation coefficients in the wet part of the study area, whereas lower r values occurred mostly in relatively dry regions. Although the rainfall over the study area was better estimated in this work than in the studies by Ouatiki et al [41] and Yuan et al [20], the TRMM and Hydroe products showed high error values. Comparing satellite pixels with data from rain gauge stations involves a mismatched spatial scale because the satellite products are extracted from an area of approximately 625 km 2 for the TRMM products and of 25 km 2 for the Hydroe products, unlike the rain gauges that provide punctual rainfall measurements.…”

“…In this work, we used the POD to assess the ability of satellite products to estimate heavy rainfall events (rainfall > 11.57 mm day −1 ). Ouatiki et al [41] and Yuan et al [20] applied the POD to detect rainfall events (rainfall > 0.5 mm day −1 ) and found lower values than those reported here with the 3B42 product (POD = 0.7). The POD value with the Hydroe product (POD = 0.43) was similar to the values found by Ouatiki et al [41] and higher than that reported by Yuan et al [20].…”

“…In general, the r values obtained with TRMM and Hydroe products in this work (Table 2) were higher than those measured in Morocco [41]. Yuan et al [20] evaluated the quality of the daily TRMM 3B42 and GPM IMERG products at the locations of five rain gauges in Myanmar. The results showed considerable errors and low correlation coefficients for both products (r < 0.35) [20].…”

“…Yuan et al [20] evaluated the quality of the daily TRMM 3B42 and GPM IMERG products at the locations of five rain gauges in Myanmar. The results showed considerable errors and low correlation coefficients for both products (r < 0.35) [20]. Jiang et al [19] analyzed the TRMM 3B42 product across a large region of China and obtained higher correlation coefficients in the wet part of the study area, whereas lower r values occurred mostly in relatively dry regions.…”

Hydrologic Evaluation of Six High Resolution Satellite Precipitation Products in Capturing Extreme Precipitation and Streamflow over a Medium-Sized Basin in China

“…During the past years, hydrologists and meteorologists have widely evaluated and applied the TMPA products [17,18,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. While, the utility of the latest version 7 TMPA products in capturing extreme precipitation and streamflow has not been fully evaluated at river basin scale.…”